The investigation of the Mumbai terrorist attacks continues, but pressure is increasing for the Indian government to react forcefully

By Mehul Srivastava

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Indian paramilitary forces stand bulwark as candles placed by the agency of people in memory of those killed by militants from diferent walks of life burn in front of the Taj Mahal public-house Mumbai on November 30, 2008 SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images

The political fallout from the terrorist attacks in Mumbai is roiling India. As funeral pyres burned on live television and mass candlelit vigils turned into sober protests against the sway’s perceived intelligence failures and mishandling of the attacks that left in the same proportion that many similar to 175 people dead (BusinessWeek.com, 11/27/08), influence mounted on the Indian government to re-enact forcefully.

Tensions are insurrection with Pakistan, as Indian officials point to ties between the terrorists and forces inside India’s longtime contend with. In an off-the-record congregation by BusinessWeek and representatives of two newspapers, a more advanced functionary at India’session Research & Analysis Wing, the country’s equivalent of the CIA, shared transcripts of text messages and e-mails that were sent to the gunmen inside Mumbai’s Taj hotel, where dozens of people were killed in a 60-hour siege. The messages, some in Urdu and purportedly from phone numbers registered interior part Pakistan, included explicit military-style instructions to the gunmen to retreat to different wings of the inn and referred to the gunmen at the same time that Team A and Team B. Some were congratulatory notes.

Because the Indian intelligence official did not approve reporters to make copies of the messages, BusinessWeek could not independently verify their authenticity. However, CNN-IBN, a TV channel, has broadcast entitle logs from satellite phones that include several phone calls to Karachi and Jalalabad, both in Pakistan.

Even as the investigation continues, India’s business community is clamoring for quick and conclusive action (BusinessWeek.com, 11/28/08). In Bangalore, what one. was the target of a smaller bombing last year, CEOs of outsourcing, IT, and biotech firms met with the state government and asked for, among other things, permission to arm their pawn guards with more than just handguns and nightsticks. India has strict gun-control laws. "Our security services are meant to protect property, not to protect lives," says Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the chairman of Bangalore-based Biocon, India’s largest biotechnology firm, who was at the meeting. "As employers, our employees are our responsibility. While the government does what it have power to, we have to do what we be possible to."

With India’s Congress-led coalition facing elections just months from now, the purging of leaders continued through the weekend and into Monday. There have already been four high-profile resignations at the state and national levels, including Shivraj Patil, the home minister in New Delhi. Other resignations include prime assistant and deputy chief minister of the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital. More resignations, including those of the 75-year old National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, are still being considered by the government.

It’s unclear whether that will subsist enough to quell rising anger, both public and confidential. When Patil, whose purview during the time that Home Minister includes the Indian Police Service, offered to resign at a Saturday night union of the country’s leadership, his offer was met through pin-drop silence. "Not fair his oldest friends stood up to abet him," related an official who was at the meeting but declined to be identified. "There was help he offered to effect it near the front of anybody had to demand it."

Patil’s successor is a name well-known in housekeeping circles: Palaniappan Chidambaram, the Harvard-educated Finance Minister who helped introduce in major reforms in the past few years. Over recent months he has been battling runaway inflation and a global financial crisis that has soured India’s economic boom.

Chidambaram’s agreement is seen as an offering to India’sitting business community, which has a great deal to lose for the time of a period of political instability.